TEAM EFA LiNKS

CHARiTY OF THE MONTH PROGRAM

Each month, TEAM EFA designates one animal charity as our Charity of the Month.

All EFA Charities of the Month is the charity of choice of at least one EFA member.

EFA members who choose to donate a portion of their product sales to the EFA Charity of the Month, please tag those listings with our cotm tag.

If after the month is done & your products are still tagged with the cotm tag then those will go to benefit next month's cotm. If you wish to donate a percentage to another charity, including a -previous- cotm, please remove 'cotm' from your tag.

Using these tags helps to identify your pledge and makes it easier for shoppers & Treasury makers to locate your cotm products.

Subscribe To

Total Pageviews

Thursday, May 31, 2012

It’s hard to find even a tiny bit of the earth that hasn’t been mapped and explored. Aside from the deep sea, people live and work pretty much everywhere. So how can it be that so many large animals are still being discovered? I recently wrote here about a new species of snub-nosed monkey. Now I’d like to introduce you to an impressive creature from the Philippines, the recently named Northern Sierra Madre forest monitor lizard (Varanus bitatawa).

Amazingly, this six foot long strikingly colored reptile was only “discovered” three years ago. It had, of course, always been known to the people living on Luzon Island where it’s found. But despite the large number of biologists working in the Philippines it had somehow escaped the notice of the wider world until the 21st century.

Photo credit: Discovery News

Part of this is the fact that it’s a very, very shy lizard. And part of it is the fact that it lives high in the treetops, seldom venturing to the ground and never crossing open country. This is relatively rare behavior for such a large monitor. Most of its cousins (the most famous of which is the Komodo dragon) chase down prey or sit and wait for it to walk by. This is hard to do high up in the canopy since most of the prey species there have the ability to fly, something that very few lizards possess.

This monitor gets around that problem by stalking fruit instead, making it one of only three species of these big lizards who are confirmed frugivores. This type of diet also makes it important to its ecosystem since it’s fulfilling a role of played by toucans and tapirs in other parts of the world: spreading seeds far and wide as it digests its meal.

Sadly, one reason so many new animals are being catalogued is loss of habitat. Many of them live deep in remote forests. But no forest is now so remote that it is immune to logging and hunting. Like the snub-nosed monkey, the Northern Sierra Madre forest lizard was first noticed by a biologist who saw a strange carcass for sale. The lizard had been caught in a snare meant for a wild pig, but such snares are indiscriminate.

Photo Credit: Los Angeles Times

The good news is that finding such unexpected and charismatic species funnels much needed interest and money to conserving their homes. This benefits all of the animals that share the forest, since big lizards need big areas in which to live.

The world is a strange and wonderful place, full of unexpected life. What else might be waiting to be discovered if we take the time to protect our wild areas instead of logging them ?

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

I'm off for two weeks to see my in-laws (all eight of them!) in Florida, but allow me to leave you with some of the finer things from the orange-bearing Sunshine State, compliments of our wonderful Team EFA members!

If you are an EFA member & would like to submit an entry, please convo our Challenge Blog Leader, Jess of jessicalynneart, with the following information:

1. PROViDE the link to an item in your shop that fits the theme or has been created for the theme.

2. EXPLAiN how you think the item fits the monthly Challenge theme

3. TELL US a bit about your work/donations/volunteer work with animals or animal charities

4. TiTLE your convo with the name of the MONTH and the word CHALLENGE, for example: JUNE CHALLENGE.

Two more important steps:

5. TAG your Etsy listing with the monthly Challenge theme tag (this month = teamefasummer) see the Themes-at-a-glance list for other tags. Be sure to ALSO keep your regular team tag in place, either 'team efa' or 'team efa cotm'

6. Renew your listing !

Remember, when we've received sixteen qualifying entries... these will be featured in a Treasury and in our Challenge Competition, where the winner will get a free etsy mini 1x1 advertising slot on EFA's Challenge blog the following month.

Challenge entries are also promoted on Etsy Teams, EFA's Yahoo Groups, Twitter and Facebook... so get your entries in asap...

Saturday, May 26, 2012

Once again sea lions are being killed for eating endangered chinook salmon at the Bonneville Dam, located between Washington and Oregon. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, sea lions are consuming less than 2% of the salmon, while 17% were taken by fisherman.

Sign the petition pledging to boycott Washington and Oregon tourism until they stop harrassing and killing sea lions.

A new report from the Center for Biological Diversity highlights the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act in every state and shows how it has helped some of the most imperiled species come back from the brink of extinction. Despite its effectiveness, it continues to be attacked by politicians who are more interested in profits than conservation.

Please sign the center's petition asking the U.S. Senate to defend the Endangered Species Act and the wildlife it's designed to protect.

Alaska provides a critical habitat for a variety of species from grizzly bears and caribou to polar bears and walruses, who all rely on National Petroleum Reserve lands for survival. The Department of the Interior is currently considering options for how to manage this land, but only one is considered appropriate for preserving habitat and protecting wildlife: Alternative B.

Please sign the petition asking Interior Secretary Ken Salazar not to cave to special interests and instead ensure protection for critical habitat in Alaska.

Black bears across North America have been found mutilated for their parts to meet the demand for their use in traditional Chinese medicine. While some states allow the trade in bear parts, while others do not. The current lack of consistency in regulations is making it difficult to protect black bears from poaching.

Sign the petition asking the Obama administration to ban the trade of bear parts in all states to ensure black bears are protected.

Search This Blog

LiNKS to EFA MEMBERS

Etsy for Animals (EFA) aka Artists Helping Animals, is a team of independent artists, craftspeople, vintage sellers and craft suppliers on Etsy.com who are dedicated to providing charitable relief to animals by donating a portion of the profits from their shops to an animal charity of their choosing, and/or to EFA's featured Charity of the Month.